10 out of 12

by Anne Washburn

"What do you think?
Well...I think it's disgusting.
It looks like the beginning of a play."

A play about work.
A play about play.
A play about plays.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to tech. Around you, a company of 14 is engaged in the very peculiar - and peculiarly impossible - task of making a new play. You'll have a seat next to the sound designer as he mixes cues. You'll eavesdrop on backstage gossip as it happens over headset. You'll watch the director struggle to contain the uncontainable.

Anne Washburn took notes during her tech rehearsals over the years. Directed by Les Waters, 10 out of 12 is a wry and absorbing look at how work forms us and deforms us.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Humor

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing idea, but I doubt anyone who is NOT in theatre would enjoy or even 'get' this. It's basically what goes on at a tech rehearsal - the boredom, the mishaps, the recalcitrant actors questioning EVERYTHING. Some of it is funny and clever, some - rather dull. And most companies couldn't afford the expense of wiring the audience up with individual headsets, a requirement of the production.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/th...
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm the props master for this and I'm in rehearsal right now and this is BRILLIANT. So much better than just reading it.

[Cori · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Play reading group script #60?)

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 3 out of 5]

After several plays of surrealist magic realism, flights of fancy and Night Vale style genre-bending, I wasn't ready for this ultimately realist, almost real-time, play about a theatre's tech rehearsal. While the central gimmick (audiences watch the play and listen with one ear, while they listen over headset to the backstage tech crew simultaneously) is clever, the play overall does not QUITE justify the long running time, and the attempt to simulate the mundane boredom of a tech rehearsal sometimes goes a little too well. I expected a bigger payoff than what we got. Good, but not great.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

This play was hard to get into because it felt so real.

The difficulty of the scripts - both the 'real life' and the play-within-the-play - is in the many monologues. They're intriguing, but also clunky, and there are a lot of them.

Love the dialogue snippets throughout between actors and technicians. Spot on. Great catch of personalities. It would be fun to dig into this and stage.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m torn in that There are some elements of the script I really enjoy and relate to and then other parts that are too drawn out and in my opinion might boring audience like extended monologues about... I’m sure.

Ms Washburn is a Humorous writer and really hits some backstage elements right on the Proverbial head. Still, I’d like a shorter script any more succinct dialogue for the actors within the play in the play play.

[JCSmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

that weird freak actor was so me love; fascinated by weird gay fantasy horror play i wanted to see more of that; i am quite curious ab the logistics of giving the audience members headsets given that they have to also watch and understand the action onstage (aka i would've been so freaking distracted) also how did they even afford that

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

What to say—Anne’s a master, writes great characters, manages to hit naturalism and then take things off kilter enough to hit at something profound and moving without being trite. She GETS theater and winningly captures a tech going horribly wrong here.

[Maddie Small · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great idea, but I wish it was executed a bit differently. I wish the play within the play was more wild and random, as it would've added to the humor. Paul's monologues were also a bit much lol. But overall fun!

[maxine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The kind of show that needs to be performed rather than read

[Ashley Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Voyeurism on something I know very well. Can tell the playwright is not a a theatre techie/ designer. But I love the experiment.

[Timur Markowitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Couldn't figure it out. Just not really for me.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fun and strange play about putting on a play - one of the most terrible and exciting parts - the technical rehearsal. Ms. Washburn has captured everything - absolutely everything - that happens during tech. I really enjoyed the Soho Rep. production (a playground for the light and sound designers) and the script - I wonder if both would be incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't been through tech. I think though, that anyone who has, should read/see this.